


How Can 8 Make 1 Team When Only 7 Are Left?

by dykenini



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Cancer, Grieving, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Moving On
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:21:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28336860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dykenini/pseuds/dykenini
Summary: How Can 8 Make 1 Team When Only 7 Are Left?akame being a little shit and writing angst for like the second time in my life. its short but,,,,,akaseonghwa has cancer.
Relationships: ATEEZ Ensemble/Everyone, Choi Jongho/Everyone, Choi San/Everyone, Everyone/Everyone, Jeong Yunho/Everyone, Jung Wooyoung/Everyone, Kang Yeosang/Everyone, Kim Hongjoong/Everyone, Park Seonghwa/Everyone, Song Mingi/Everyone
Kudos: 14





	How Can 8 Make 1 Team When Only 7 Are Left?

Hongjoong shot up off his chair. "What?"

"I said..Hwa's in c-critical condition.." Yeosang said to the highschool English teacher, leaning against the doorframe, still in his florists apron. "She might die."

The smaller man stared at him in disbelief for a few seconds before he started to shake his head. "No no no! No! We had two years! The doctor said we had two years!"

"Sometimes things dont go according to plan Hongjoong." Yeosang said slightly coldly, his gaze sharp. "Like the fact that your partner is in the hospital with needles in her body that are the only thing keeping her alive and you are making this about you. She's dying Joong. Dying!"

"She's really going?" This time when he looked up, Hongjoongs eyes were filled with despair and his voice broke. He was obviously two seconds away from bawling in the presence of his 3rd year English class. "What ward?" He tried to collect himself and fumbled for his keys, waiting for Yeosang to answer. 

"The same one she was always in Joong. I'll drive." Yeosang said, hating to see his partner like this. 

"You need to get the others. I'll drive myself. I'm a big boy Sangie. I can handle it." Hongjoong started towards the door and was stopped by Yeosang. 

"They're already there. You're the last one."

"I'm the what? Why wasn't I told first?" Hongjoong demanded, his expression showing hurt and disbelief. "I'm the one who should have been told!"

"Just hurry up Joongie. We need to get there soon." Yeosang said, seeming perfectly composed. 

Hongjoong wondered how he could act like this when his boyfriend was literally dying. 

He reluctantly let himself be led out to the teachers carpark, ignoring his own car in favour of Yeosangs large, out of place delivery van. 

"You-"

"I got the news while I was coming back from a delivery. Shut up and get in the car." Yeosang snapped, his face taut. 

Hongjoong struggled to find the right words to comfort Yeosang but before he could find them he was pulled into the car and told to buckle himself in. 

They sat in silence for the short ride to the hospital, tears rolling down Hongjoong's face. 

Once they arrived at the hospital, Hongjoong jumped out and runs through the doors. He needed no guidance as to where to go, remembering from his last visit. 

He ran up a flight of stairs to the cancer floor (at least thats what he had nicknamed it. officially it was some bullshit like 'High Care Level Fatal Illnesses' Hongjoong didnt know.) and hurried down to the slightly ajar door of room 63. 

"Joong!" Mingi barrelled into him and squeezed him tight. "Hwa's been asking for you since Yeo left. He fell asleep just then but you can sit at his bed."

Hongjoong made his way to the side of Seonghwas hospital bed. His usually strong, healthy boyfriend looked so small. His head looked tiny with no hair and his weight loss had changed the frame of his body dramatically. But he was still beautiful. He would always be beautiful to Hongjoong. To all of them. 

"I love you." He whispered hoarsely, knowing Seonghwa cant hear him but saying it anyway. 

"He loves you too." San ventured nervously, unsure of how Hongjoong will react. They all know how volatile Hongjoong gets. 

Hongjoong nodded numbly, not really processing the words, only the tone in which it was said, slightly flat and with no hint of grief.

"Why are you so composed right now? You and Mingi and Yeosang and Yunho and Jongho and fucking Wooyoung. Why are you so ok when Seonghwa is right here and he's fighting CANCER for gods sakes!" Hongjoong erupted suddenly, leaping up and fisting his hands in Sans sweater and thumping his head repeatedly against Sans shoulder. "Why?"

San broke. San sobbed. San weeped. San finally gave out. Whatever the fuck you want to call it. San cried in his boyfriend's arms as his eldest partner slowly devolved into a worse state of near death. 

"I tried..to b-be strong.." He hiccuped, tears streaming down his face and into Hongjoong's lilac hair. "B-But he's..d-dying and I..can't stop it.."

Hongjoong and San felt a strong pair of arms encircle them and a deep voice speaking gently. "It's okay. It's okay. Seonghwa wouldn't want you to cry. He'd want you to be-"

He was cut off by a scream.

"Nurse! Doctor! Anyone please! He's dying!" A scream tore through the air, sounding as if the person used the last air in their lungs before collapsing onto the floor, their sobs rending the air. 

Mingi immediately lets go and the three of them rush to join the others at Seonghwa's bed, Yeosang bursting in, evidently having returned in time to hear the shout. 

They watched as he took his last breaths, his eyelids fluttering in his sleep. Then their boyfriend was gone. Seonghwa was dead. And they were left to grieve. 

There was no sound in the room apart from the whirring of the cold air being vented into the room. Even Wooyoung, who's shrieks had alerted them to Seonghwa's death, was silent. 

The room was silent until it wasn't. Until Jongho knelt down next to Seonghwa's bed and cried. And Hongjoong's mind blurred. 

He doesn't remember walking toward him, doesn't remember hushing his sobs, pulling the younger boy (for that was what Jongho was, a boy who has been struck with grief far too soon) against his chest and pressing kisses to his hair, cheeks, forehead, anywhere he could reach. He doesn't remember wrapping his arms so tightly around him that they feel like one person. 

All Hongjoong remembers is that Jongho cried. When Seonghwa died, Jongho cried. 

[]

And now? Exactly three years after Seonghwa left them?

Hongjoong is 27 and still, everyday he wakes up and he looks at his husbands (illegal husbands obviously) and looks around wildly for the seventh. 

On their wedding day, he felt so guilty. Felt like Seonghwa should have been there. Every milestone they reached without him felt wrong. 

But Hongjoong's been healing. And now, as he stands at the grave of the man he loved most in this world, he weeps. He weeps, not just in grief for Seonghwa's death, but for everything he missed. For the person he couldn't be. 

Hongjoong cries. 

And it feels like these past three years have dragged on for centuries. But Seonghwa is happy now. He knows Seonghwa is happy. 

Wherever he is, Seonghwa is happy. 

"Goodbye my love. See you next year." He whispers, placing Yeosang's flower gently down on the mound of dirt at his feet. 

And Hongjoong smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> yeah?


End file.
